Posts Tagged ‘pasta’

Mushroom & Spinach Pasta Goo

Posted: 29th October 2013 by doomthings in Dinner, The Foodening
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We have a Costco-sized pack of delicious delicious mushrooms and we can’t eat them fast enough.  Today’s dinner used up half of them and finished up our frozen spinach (fresh would have been better, but would have taken longer to prepare).  This one is easy because you can pretty much substitute out any one of the ingredients for something similar to get different tastes.  A lot of my measurements are inexact because I kind of made it up as I went along.  Try it!

Mushroom and Spinach Pasta Goo | doomthings

This definitely hit the spot.  There’s even some leftovers for tomorrow!  We might have to fight for them…

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 bag frozen spinach
  • 1/2 cup beef stock
  • 2 cups egg noodles
  • 3 tbsp marscapone cheese
  • 2 tbsp parmesan cheese, shredded
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Saute mushrooms, onions, and garlic until tender.
  2. Add spinach and cook until thawed/combined (or wilted if fresh).
  3. Add beef stock to taste and cook until partly evaporated.
  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Cook egg noodles (or any noodles of your choice) according to package directions, drain, and return to pot.
  6. Add marscapone and parmesan cheese to noodles and mix well. Add more to taste and season with more salt and pepper if desired.
  7. Add spinach/mushroom mix to noodles and mix well.”

 

Next Day Now Lasagna

Posted: 7th June 2013 by doomthings in Dinner, The Foodening
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Most lasagna seems to be better as a leftover; something to do with the flavors getting all chummy as it sits in the refrigerator.  Lasagna should not be worth posting, because lasagna is not special.  You can put whatever you want in it and on the second day: delicious comfort food.  I found a better way.

What I learned while making Next Day Now Lasagna:

  1. No-boil lasagna sheets are so easy (and apparently were lying around my house for years – it was time).
  2. Saute the veggies before you add them in your layers (I didn’t use meat so I have no advice for that).
  3. Cheddar cheese works just as good, if not better, than ricotta cheese in the cheese-goo-mix.
  4. It’s seriously filling, so you don’t need a lot.
  5. 9″ x 4″ baking dishes are essential for the single person (I’m not single, but my hoos-band was out on travel when I made this, so that week, I was single as far as food is concerned).

Here’s the recipe I threw together (based on the back of the lasagna pasta box) in case you’d like to try my version:

Ingredients:

  • 5 no-boil lasagna sheets
  • pasta sauce (I didn’t measure this out, see directions)
  • half a pepper, sliced in strips
  • handful of sliced mushrooms
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic, diced
  • dried oregano
  • dried parsley
  • cracked pepper, to taste
  • mozzarella cheese, grated + extra for topping
  • white cheddar cheese, grated + extra for topping
  • parmesan cheese, ground or grated
  • 1 egg
  • olive oil (for sauteing veggies)

Directions:

  1. Saute veggies and garlic with olive oil and cracked pepper.
  2. In a small bowl, combine cheeses, oregano, parsley, and egg; mix well.  Add cracked pepper if desired.
  3. Grease 9″ x 4″ baking dish w/olive oil or cooking spray.
  4. Just coat the bottom of the dish with pasta sauce.
  5. Layer:  pasta, sauce, cheese mixture, veggies.
  6. Continue layering until you have one pasta sheet left and place it on top.
  7. Top the last pasta sheet with sauce and extra mozzarella and cheddar.
  8. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.

I went in with expectations that it would be meh on the first day and fine as a leftover.  I was wrong.  It was awesome all the time.  + 5 sensing

I can haz lasagna now.

I can haz lasagna now.

Avocado Spinach Pasta

Posted: 28th March 2013 by doomthings in Dinner, The Foodening
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Normally when I want to eat something with avocados, I exclaim in my husband’s face that I plan to buy them but never have a plan.  So we never buy avocados.  This time I was prepared!  I read up on avocados how to use them for things other than sandwiches and guacamole.  Using them for pasta sauce worked out perfect because I love cream sauce, but it doesn’t love me.

Avacado Spinach Pasta | doomthings

Ingredients:

  • Half a box of pasta
  • 1 ripe avocado, pitted and scooped
  • lemon juice to taste
  • lemon zest
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 tbsp olive oil + extra for veggies
  • handful of fresh basil
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • parmesan cheese to taste
  • ground pepper to taste + extra for veggies
  • mushrooms (optional)
  • onions (optional)
  • spinach leaves (optional)

Directions:

  1. Cook pasta according to box directions.
  2. Combine avocado, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, basil, and salt in a food processor until smooth.
  3. Toss sauce with pasta.
  4. Add parmesan cheese and pepper to taste.
  5. Saute mushrooms, onions, and spinach in extra olive oil and ground pepper.
  6. Add veggies to pasta and serve immediately.

This was pretty delicious.  It was quite filling without making it feel like I downed a pound of heavy cream, and it didn’t sit heavy in my stomach.  This was a great idea. +5 intelligence.

 

I’ve heard things about avocados not really lasting more than a day, so we’ll see how my leftovers turn out.